Sunday, November 27, 2011

The violence of police actions against several 'Occupy' venues is difficult to understand. The disturbing images, ( male officers unleashing streams of pepper spray in the faces of women or dragging them through streets by the hair), might better describe the actions of an invading force of mercenaries, not Americans on Americans.

Escalation to chemical spray and poison gas violates, at minimum, the spirit of the international treaties enacted after the First World War prohibiting use of such horrific weapons. The nationally coordinated use of tactics and weapons against our own citizens raises serious questions. What are our police forces anticipating? What eventuality are they practicing for? Whom are they protecting?

Even if you believe the distortions by Murdoch's FOX reporters, the protesters are Americans exercising protected freedoms that, in theory at least, make us more of a democracy than any other country on the planet. It's OK to pitch a tent in front of one's favorite Walmart while waiting overnight for the store to open on Thanksgiving Day. It's apparently not OK to do the same to support the 50 million Americans without health care, the 25 million children who go to bed hungry every night or the millions evicted from their homes this year.

As our once great country collapses on the backs of 'the 99%,' the CEO of Goldman Sachs searches for ways to spend the bonuses he paid himself for implementing the mortgage ponzi scheme that caused our economic collapse. The greatest irony is the CEO's brilliant manipulation of his congressional and Treasury allies to stage the taxpayer bailout which funded those bonuses.

US politicians, while quiet on the home front, had voiced broad support for the 'Arab Spring' and the brave activists throughout the Arab world. Imagine the frustrated embarrassment as the worldwide media captured the circular hypocrisy of our 'leaders'. Broadcast for the world to see were the images of spent tear gas canisters held for the cameras, (in the hands of Egyptian demonstrators), to reveal bold markings spelling out,'Made in the U.S.A'.